Podcast Ombudsman Report for Blueshirt Bandwidth Ep. 89

Welcome back to the Blueshirt Bandwidth Podcast Ombudsman Report. Each week, Charlie Vidal will listen to the latest episode of the podcast and correct the record on anything Joe and Eric get wrong. If you aren't already, you can listen and subscribe to the podcast here.

Scott Stevens

While discussing how Eric Lindros missed an entire season following a concussion at the hands of Scott Stevens in the 2000 Eastern Conference Final, Joe wondered, “how many people did Scott Stevens murder?”

In Game 2 of the 1995 Stanley Cup Final, Stevens went headhunting against the Detroit Red Wings' Slava Kozlov.

In Game 2 of the 2000 Eastern Conference Final, Scott Stevens skated across the ice to headshot Philadelphia Flyers forward Daymond Langkow just inside his own blue line. This is what we in the industry refer to as “foreshadowing.”

With 17 seconds left in a 2-0 game during the first round of the 2001 playoffs, Stevens decided to concuss Shane Willis. If you haven’t heard of Shane Willis, it’s probably because the injury he suffered derailed his NHL career and he never matched the 44 points that he put up as a 23 year old rookie.

The most notable “Scott Stevens murder” of all time was of Paul Kariya in the 2003 Stanley Cup Final, who for reasons that would not fly in today’s NHL was let back into the game and scored one of the most electric goals of all time.

Brind’Amour: Lots of Runway?

While discussing the Carolina Hurricanes strategy of sticking with their system, the fact that Rod Brind’Amour got eight years in the job without even reaching the Stanley Cup Finals was raised.

Since the great lockout, only 11 coaches have been given eight or more seasons at the helm. Of those, three never even reached the Stanley Cup Final, and Lindy Ruff lead the Sabres to game 6 of the 1999 Final, where they lost on a legitimate goal because Brett Hull gained possession of the puck prior to his skate entering the crease. The other six (seven if you include Brind’Amour) won a Cup. The three who never reached the Final are Paul Maurice (Winnipeg Jets), Barry Trotz (Nashville Predators), and Dave Tippett (Arizona Coyotes):

Cup Winning Goalies are Random Guys?

While defending the New York Rangers salary outlay on Igor Shesterkin, Eric went through the past 30 years of Stanley Cup winning goalies, pointing out that more often than not, teams at least have “The Guy” in net and not some random scrub. In the 21 seasons since the lockout, seven teams have won the cup with a future Hall of Famer, seven have won with “The Guy” for their franchise, as seven have won with a random guy who got hot or was behind a great team:

Eric made an error in going back before the great lockout of 2004-05 to look at goalie quality of cup winning teams. Prior to the lockout, teams didn’t have the constraints of the salary cap and were able to add elite goalies behind already loaded teams. This is evidenced by the fact that of the 21 teams to win the Stanley Cup prior to the lockout, 17 of them were backstopped by a future Hall of Famer. The only exceptions are franchise legends Bill Ranford, Mike Richter, and Nikolai Khabibulin, along with noted steaming pile of shit Chris Osgood, who was behind a 1998 Detroit Red Wings team that featured seven future Hall of Famers:

(Note: as previously discussed, it is the official Banter editorial position that Jordan Binnington sucks.)

Rangers Goaltending Consistency

While discussing the value of having a consistent goalie when it comes to the playoffs, Eric asked if you could “think of a series where Hank or Igor were terrible” and cost the Rangers the series.

Looking at postseason Goals Saved Above Expected from hockeystats.com for both Henrik Lundqvist and Igor Shesterkin, you can see that both consistently stopped more pucks than expected in the postseason throughout their careers:

Once you look a little more closely at the numbers, you can see where Lundqvist started to falter. From when the advanced metric tracking began during the 2007-08 season until the 2015 Eastern Conference Final, Henrik Lundqvist did not have a single series in which he posted a negative GSAx. Unfortunately, that changed when Lundqvist gave up six goals in Games 2 and 3 against the Tampa Bay Lighting in a series that the Rangers would eventually lose in seven games. In 2016 the Rangers were going nowhere in the first round against the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins, but Lundqvist didn’t help the cause. In 2017, which would go down as Henrik’s last real chance at a cup, he played below expected against the Ottawa Senators in a series that the Rangers lost in six games.

All that being said, the run from 2008 to 2015 where Lundqvist had a positive GSAx in 15 consecutive playoff series is superhuman:

So far, Igor has not had a single postseason series in which he played multiple games and gave up more goals than expected:

Notable Number 11s

The parallels between Jalen Brunson and Mark Messier, both wearing number 11 and joining a Garden team to break a 50+ year championship drought were brought up. For some reason, Anthony Volpe’s name keeps being thrown around as another number 11 in New York who might help lead his team to a title.

This is Chuck Knoblauch erasure. The Yankees already brought in a number 11 who immediately contributed in a massive way to winning the World Series in his first two seasons with the team:

Furthermore, anybody who has actually seen Anthony Volpe play this season is not holding out hope for him to be a hero in October.